Mastery idea; Exorcism

[andreyy]

Why? Because YerkYerk needs a rival ;p

Background:
This mastery is inspired by people like (surprise!) exorcists, witch hunters and institutions like Inquisition. It wouldn't be purely a caster mastery, though most of the skills would be spells.

Here are some skill ideas, to give you the picture:

Cleansing Strike
target, melee attack
Exorcist strikes the target with fury, releasing a wave of (holy?) energy. All, negative buffs suffered by the Exorcist are transfered to the target for full duration and to the secondary targets (damaged by the wave) for half the duration.

Ad.1. If you keep the structure, where you have skills which enhance other skills, a "subordinate" skill could add the wave effect or modify it in some way and/or make it work the other way around - that positive buffs on the target would be transfered to the Exorcist.
Ad.2. You could have the wave's shape vary, depending on which weapon the Exorcist is using. Smashing the target with a mace/hammer, would release a sort of a nova (damage in a circle around the target). Slashing the target with a sword would release a wave in a cone, behind the target. Thrusting him with a spear would cause linear damage, behind the target.
Notes: 'Holy' could not be a proper word here, while we do not know all the lore details.

Banish
target area debuff
The Exorcist banishes all enemy units in target area from this plane of the world, making them ethereal. Foes affected miss their attacks, but are also harder to hit (evasion) and suffer additional damage from spells/magic.
Notes: you could say it's partly ripped off from Warcraft 3, the Bloodmage. It is, since that game once defiled my mind by a lot ;)

Flaming Zeal
activable/aura, area of effect debuff, draining a lot of mana
The Exorcist starts his incantations, setting all, nearby, enemy units on fire. Damage + some secondary effect (decreased armour, whatever)

Ad.1. In-class synergy with Banish. Any, AoE damaging spell would work well with Banish.
Ad.2. It could burn the Exorcist too - then it could be used in conjunction with Cleansing Strike, to extend the duration of burn on enemy units.
Ad.3. An upgrade of this spell could add some buff for allies.
Notes: it should drain a lot of mana, unlike all those TQ aura spells. You shouldn't be able to regenerate mana fast enough to have it on for too long.

Holy Water
activable, draining mana on attack or a left-click attack enhancer
Exorcist soaks his weapon in an enchanted concoction, making his attacks deal additional damage to evil creatures (or a group of evil creatures, for example, demons) and making them miss their attacks.
Notes: Possible change - it could be an aura, affecting allies too. Art: it could add a little glow to the weapon/projectile, but more importantly - make an effect on the enemy, with some steam, like it was burning them. Stuff you see in vampire movies when they see sunlight ^^

I'll add more, when I think of something suitable, your thoughts?

[andreyy]

BUMP. Because every other mastery idea thread got commented, yet this is totally ignored. Me be sad :(

/emo

[yerkyerk]

Well, you wanted comments, here's mine;

The skills seems to be rather true to Exorcism, so kudo's for that. I can also see everything working in the actual game, so it should be possible to implement this.

Than on the specific skills;
Cleansing Strike - nice, but I don't think the player's going to have enough negative buffs to really take advantage of such a skill. Perhaps transferring buffs could be a side-effect of another attack. I like little side effects.
Banish is pretty much ripped off from WC3; I also used a similar idea for my Channel mastery. So I'm down with that.
Flaming Zeal; too generic. Although setting yourself on fire might be fun for a few times and the synergy with Cleansing Strike could work.
Holy Water - too generic as well. And skills that can only be used against specific monstertypes are never too interesting.

[andreyy]

Well, I added holy water basing on stuff in TQ - you had a few, enemy-type specific spells there. I think druid had something against the undead. Or was it Mysticism? ... I keep forgetting TQ contents Oo

Cleansing Strike - yeah, if we look at TQ, where you were barely ever debuffed by creatures, it is useless. But why should creatures be as boring in Grim Dawn? ;)

Zeal is pretty generic atm, because I couldn't think of a secondary effect for this.

Thanks for comments.

[yerkyerk]

TQ does have a few monster-type specific spells (mainly undead and demons), but that renders the skill useless or nerfed against other types of monsters, there's not much incentive for players to invest heavily in skills (or even use them at all) if they can only use it against a rather limited type of population.

I like the transferring system of Cleansing strike. Steal positive buffs and give away the negatives. But I think more should be added to it than that, as I can't imagine enough buffs and debuffs going off to make the skill really interesting enough to invest in.

[eisprinzessin]

Can there be holy damage in GD - like in the Final Fantasy series? ;) Maybe it can be extra damage, if you fight minions of the two otherworldly powers?

Exorcism sounds a bit churchly ... I'm under the impression that GD has little to no religion in its lore (so a mastery called Exorcism would be inappropriate) ... but this has not been specified yet.

[andreyy]

You have no idea how people were driven by religion in those times. It's not medieval, but it's still long ago. Europeans and the newly found USA were discriminating "minor" nations throughout the world, also by the means of religion. Thus, I wouldn't say it's inappropriate.

[eisprinzessin]

Well, there have been hints that we have to fight the supernatural in GD. So something like Exorcism might come in handy ... just not sure how to call it. And you are right that we don't know, if religion will be an important part or not ... that's what I meant.

I can imagine that the suffering people of Cairn would seek refuge by turning to religion though. I'd find it more appealing, if people revolted out of their own will.

Despite of this I'm fond of religion themes, if well done. But as Cairn cannot use ancient Greek myth, Crate would have to create a lot of background on this.

[medierra]

The theme of this mastery is quite appropriate since many of the enemies you face are actually possessed, although not by demons per se. We don't want to have any associations to real-world religions in the game though, so some of the terminology would probably need to change.

I think you'll see a class similar to what has been laid out here though. There is a governmental organization in the world-fiction that is sort of like the inquisition, although not religiously motivated. Perhaps more like a supernatural FBI? ; )

[andreyy]

Feral Bureau of Investigation? ;)

As for "turning to religion", that should certainly happen and I bet it will. Some weird cults and sects you'd come across, while adventuring. Like in the Fallout series ^^

[eisprinzessin]

Feral Bureau of Investigation? ;)
That's a good one ... no typing error, is it? :D

My concern regarding religion has been, that it would blow up the lore and consume parts, which should be filled in with stuff about the invaders.

[yerkyerk]

I think implementing one or several religions would add depth to the game world. It doesn't have to be a main focus of the story, but I do believe it can make the players believe they're travelling in a real and deep world, rather than a staged set of areas. Hellgate London, once again, is a good example of how not to do this stuff. The main focus being on Templars and taking place partially in Catholic churches (which are pretty cool) but not any focus at all on any sort of religion. Imho, it was just one of the many places where the game fell short.

It shouldn't be tied to any existing religions though. I think using stuff from existing religions is a good idea, as long as it's revealed that they're not related to this world's religions. Stuff such as gothic churches - they're amongst the most beautiful feets of human architecture (imho).

With TQ, Templars and Paladins were simply anachronistic, a weird medieval reference in a game about ancient Greece. Nothing too serious though, as classnames only served to indicate which powers you had combined.

[yerkyerk]

This reminds me of the Boondock Saints, btw :D
Awesome movie!

Here's the coolest part, also the ending (bit of a spoiler)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81SOh0vVWhk&feature=related